The London 2012 Olympic Park will become a new ‘great park’ helping to transform east London after the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, in legacy plans unveiled by the Olympic Delivery Authority.
Work is already underway to create around 250 acres of parklands, on former industrial land, that will provide a colourful and festival atmosphere for London 2012 and afterwards become the largest new urban park in the UK for over 100 years.
Alongside permanent parklands with over 4,000 trees, the legacy transformation plans, which have developed with the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) and recently submitted for approval, include temporary wildflower meadows on plots awaiting development and temporary avenues of trees and hedges along future development areas to create a welcoming entrance to the Park.
Other highlights from the new plans, inspired by Britain’s lead role in creating the world’s first public parks, include:
• • ‘Hanging gardens’ thirty foot above ground on the huge footbridge from Stratford City with meadows, lawns, shrubs and rows of trees welcoming people over the main walking entrance into the Park.
• A tree-lined ‘park road’ into the north of the Park modeled on The Mall and Birdcage Walk next to St James’ and Hyde Park, with distinctively designed surfacing, lighting and bollards and traffic management so visitors feel like they are in the park.
• A new regional sports club set in parklands with a tranquil garden square centred on the original Eton Manor Boys Club war memorial and lined with Sweet Gum trees which turn red around Remembrance Day.
• 4,000 semi-mature trees, 300,000 wetlands plants and hundreds of thousands of plants and bulbs in varied parklands including wooded hills, meadows, ponds, lawns, gardens and wet woodlands.
ODA Chief Executive David Higgins said:
“We are cleaning up industrial land and creating the green backdrop for the London 2012 Games that in legacy will become the UK’s largest new urban park in over a century. Inspired by the original Victorian parks, the meadows, gardens, woods and river walks in this new ‘great park’ will create a fantastic public space for people and wildlife right at the heart of the transformation of east London.”
LOCOG Chairman Sebastian Coe said:
“With a little over two years to go until the Olympic and Paralympic Games come to London, the further regeneration of east London continues apace and our vision of a new urban parkland is developing before our eyes. After the Games have gone, an incredible legacy will be left – not least a family-friendly park with state of the art sporting facilities transforming this area for London, creating and serving new communities for generations to come.”
Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell said:
“The Olympics will create a stunning green oasis in East London that in legacy will join the long list of world famous parks London is so lucky to have. Nowhere else will features like the Great British Garden, wetlands and new wildlife habitats sit side by side with world class sports facilities. This will be a destination that the whole nation can be proud of.”
The parkland will be developed further by the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) which is responsible for the long term development, management and maintenance of the Olympic Park site after the Games. The OPLC will enhance the parkland through a programme of both large scale and community based events, as well as introducing other physical features such as recreational facilities and other visitor attractions.
Olympic Park Legacy Company Chief Executive Andrew Altman said:
“We will create one of the great London parks, sitting alongside places like Kensington Park, Victoria Park and St James’ Park.
“To do that we need both a high quality parkland and an excellent programme of events for local people and visitors. The ODA’s plans provide us with an excellent start and we will be working with the local community and park operators over the next two years to bring the park to life.”
The parklands will also include:
• A six metre wide, one mile road cycle circuit built into the parklands around the Velodrome and crossing the River Lea, with low UV lighting for year round and evening use while protecting bats. Also 6km of off-road mountain bike tracks and a network of cycle paths across the Park including National Route 1.
• A large oval lawn with an amphitheatre setting in the north of the Park suitable for games, picnics and other leisure activities.
• The London 2012 Garden stretching for half a mile on the Waterworks riverbank between the Aquatics Centre and Olympic Stadium and celebrating centuries of British passion for gardens and plants. It will include picnic lawns, seating and 60,000 plants and 60,000 bulbs from 250 different species.
• A riverside Royal Horticultural Society Great British Garden overlooking the Olympic Stadium, which two amateur gardeners are helping to design after their competition entries won a public vote.
• Two feature gardens with planting designed by the Klassnik Corporation, We Made That and Riitta Ikonen - an art collective based in the Host Boroughs - to represent the industrial heritage of the Olympic Park site.
• Four football fields (2.1 hectares) worth of secure and accessible allotments.
• 3 km of restored and accessible previously neglected rivers, including the original Carpenters Lock restored in a riverside bowl in the centre of the park, connecting the northern and southern areas.
• Wetland bowls and rare wet woodlands already being formed in the north of the Park to create habitat and help manage floodwater, protecting new housing and venues and 5,000 existing homes from a 1:100 year storm. Rain water is captured through porous paving and cleansed through a network of swales, ponds and reedbeds before flowing into the river.
• New habitats for species including: otter; kingfisher; grey heron; bee; house sparrow; bat; song thrush; starling; toadflax brocade moth; lizard; black redstart; flower and fungus beetle; frogs, newts and toads; eel; water vole; slow worm; grass snake; linnet; sand martin; swift; and invertebrates.
• Large concourse areas reduced in size and broken up with ‘islands’ of plants, trees and meadows.
• New landscape designs around the Aquatics Centre include planted hills with seating providing views across the river to the 2012 Gardens.
• Mounds and hills across the Park for tumbling in summer and sledging in winter.
• 250 benches and over 3300 seats built into the parklands so that people are never more than 50m walk from a seat.
• Custom-built lighting columns on the festival area between the Aquatics Centre and Stadium fitted with vertical wind turbines as a symbol of the Park’s sustainability.
• Temporary tree-lined daffodil, bluebell, clover and primrose meadows that vary through the seasons created on the development land on the northern entrance to the Park that may not be developed for many years. Rather than traditional construction hoarding which would deter people from using the Park, this unique use of parklands also reduces long term security costs.
The southern part of the Park will focus on retaining the Games spirit, with riverside gardens and areas for markets, events, cafes and bars in legacy. The northern area of the Park will use the latest green techniques to manage flood and rain water while providing quieter public space and habitats for hundreds of existing and rare species from kingfishers to otters.
ODA Project Sponsor John Hopkins said:
“Nearby Victoria Park was one of the world’s first public parks opened in 1845. We have designed the Olympic Park parklands to be one of the world’s first parks responding to the challenges of sustainability and climate change, creating the setting not only for a fantastic Olympic and Paralympic Games, but also for liveable neighbourhoods well into the future.”
